


Monuments and Moments

by spectre



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 15:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/599462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spectre/pseuds/spectre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been a wave in the distance that soon engulfed them and left one stranded.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monuments and Moments

**Author's Note:**

> My gift for the Mass Effect holiday cheer exchange! A reflective piece. Unbeta'd.

She had the right to be selfish for a few moments; to breath a few shallow breathes and steady herself against the railings overlooking the Presidium. The galaxy could wait. It was a moment that had been foretold. Not by a seer, but by coughs that grew stronger and breaths that grew shorter. It had been a wave in the distance that soon engulfed them and left one stranded. 

His movements were fluid, precise, and most importantly, lethal. Up until the end he had been the best of his kind, a master assassin as his dossier had detailed. She had been curious to how they would meet. She fought her way to the top of half-constructed building (left even more undone by end) , but she had learned that her recruits came with a price; a price she had no choice but to pay. 

When they meet he seemed unaffected by their presence and clasped his hands in prayer. A habit it seemed. She found it strange for him to pray for someone who did not deserve it. In the end she learned that it was not for the one he had just killed, but for him. His conscience was laden with guilt despite his later claims of a separation of mind and body. Perhaps it was because he was dying. He did not hide the fact. In the time he had left he hoped to do some good and perhaps bring some light into the world before his interlude within it came to an end. So their paths merged, entwined with a cause much greater than either of them. Yet there was something akin to life in between the impending Reaper destruction. 

It started with a cup of tea, and continued with the excuse of being a good leader and making sure her crew was adjusting well. Small talk evolved into debates, into the sharing of moments bygone while at the same time planting the seeds of future ones. Hands inched across the table. First the grip on her cup loosened, slowly becoming free to accept rather than deny, as they discussed life and death and their roles within that convoluted circle. They were of a kind in a way. 

One day he called her _Siha_. He smiled to himself apparently enjoying her curiosity and confusion when her translator failed. It was a word without meaning and it felt strange on her lips. So she asked what it meant to archive the word and meaning. _“I will tell you next time we talk, Siha.”_ He left her in suspense. In the end, she would look back and think it was well worth the wait. The word was his heart, and she gave him hers to keep as well. 

They didn’t use time as a measure of their relationship. It would have been a waste if they had lived counting each breath. Instead she counted the sighs and silences shared between them. The battles they had fought back to back prepared for oblivion. She lacked his eidetic memory, but the memories brought back the sensations just as well. They both had known that there was an end, it had only been a matter of when (so they didn’t let it consume them). 

Forethought, however, did not make the loss any less. The world felt smaller, emptier, colder; standing at the center of the galaxy didn't change the fact, it amplified it. There was now a space among the fractures she carried. One day she’d close her eyes and the space would be filled. She was a soldier and like any good soldier she marched on. His words would serve as temporary salve and anchor. 

_                                                                                             ‘A place where the lover never leaves.’  _


End file.
